On the same day the White House invited miners to join in a celebration of efforts to open more federal land to coal mining, the nation’s top mine-safety agency announced its “temporary” suspension of a rule that protects miners from breathing silica dust — a contaminant that causes black lung disease.
For too long, America’s miners have fallen ill or died from debilitating silicosis after being exposed to toxic silica dust.All workers deserve to come home healthy and safe at the end of the work day. Pausing enforcement of the silica rule makes that less likely for miners.
The Mine Safety and Health Administration (MSHA) justified the move by citing recent layoffs ordered by Health and Human Services Secretary Robert F. Kennedy, Jr. at a government office focused on workplace safety — claiming that the “unforeseen … restructuring” led to a need to “provide time for operators to secure necessary equipment.”
Following layoffs at Morgantown's NIOSH location this week, organizations are speaking out to let the public know of the effects it will have in different industries, including coal mining.https://www.wowktv.com/news/west-virginia/niosh-layoffs-to-have-direct-effects-on-coal-miners/
— WOWK 13 News (@wowk13news.bsky.social) 2025-04-03T23:45:01.931Z
At the White House ceremony attended by miners, Trump touted executive orders designed to rid the country of climate regulations, air-pollution rules, and other health and safety measures that he said amounted to a “war on beautiful, clean coal.” With the miners arrayed behind him, Trump claimed that stripping back regulations was in those workers’ best interest — despite his administration’s move at the same time to suspend enforcement of the rule that protects against black lung.
Trump: "One thing I learned about the coal miners — that's what they want to do. You could give them a penthouse on 5th Avenue and a different kind of a job and they'd be unhappy. They want to mine coal. She was gonna put them in a high tech industry where you make little cell phones and things."
Even after the president’s executive orders, the use of coal to generate electricity is expected to continue to fade — because coal’s cost makes it less competitive than natural gas, solar, and wind.
- Mine Agency Places Silica Rule Enforcement on Temporary Pause [Bloomberg Law]